You know the saying “don’t lose the forest for the trees, right?”  My viewpoints on the value of various forms of fruits and vegetables are a bit of the trees and the forest.

The trees are a message that you’ve all likely heard.  When you take whole apples, for example, and remove the skins and cook them to make sauce, obviously some of the nutrients (think fiber and vitamin C) are lost.  Then you go one step further and make juice and most of those nutrients are gone.  Not much is left except for sugar.  Make sense, right?  The foods are whittled down to the nutrients they provide.

But I think the more important message is in the forest.  Do an experiment.  One day for a snack have ½ cup of apple juice.  The next day for snack have a whole apple.  Do you have the same level of satiety, the same feeling of fullness after both?  Most likely not.  While there are products on the market today that make vegetables into powders and potions, suggesting that by adding a few tablespoons of this powder to a cup of water you’ll get the benefit of eating 5 vegetables, I disagree.  If you actually ate 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, you would have a full feeling that no powder can replace.  This is an important benefit of eating vegetables and fruits; they help you fell full.

Related to this is another viewpoint of the forest – what are you not eating because you are eating fruits and vegetables?  Carrot sticks and fresh green beans at 3 in the afternoon might prevent you from going for a cookie, a candy bar, or a bag of chips that is more calorie-dense and less nutrient-dense.

Whether they grow on trees or in the ground or on a vine. .. it’s important to look at the big picture of what vegetables and fruits contribute to overall healthy eating habits and overall health.

Visit www.nuval.com where whole fruits and vegetables score higher than juices or sauces.

My Tips for Getting more Fruits and Vegetables

• With lives as busy as they are, it’s not uncommon for adults and kids alike to be complaining that their “starving” while dinner is being prepped.  With a growing almost-13-year-old son at home, I hear this all the time.  My advice is to cut up a bowl of veggies (think baby carrots, cucumbers, red peppers, jicama) or fruit (think strawberries, kiwi, pineapple) and set it out for all to munch on while you get dinner on the table.  I know you may be thinking “it will ruin their dinner,” nutritionally speaking, I don’t know that eating more fruits and vegetables can be considered ruining dinner, right?
• It’s June, and soccer, baseball, and lacrosse are all in full swing.  If you’re asked to bring a “treat” for after a game, think about bringing ice cold sliced fruit.  What’s more refreshing after a hot, sweaty game than biting into frozen grapes or sliced oranges?
• Kabobs are an easy way to add vegetables to any dinner.  Cut up a variety of vegetables, and let family members build their own kabobs.  Season with a salt-free seasoning or Italian dressing and cook on the grill. 
• While it has been a wet spring in the Midwest and many crops are behind schedule, this season provides a great opportunity to pick your own fruits.  Find a picking farm and take family and friends out to the strawberry or blueberry patch, the cherry farm or later this fall, the apple orchard. 
• Getting five to nine vegetables and fruits in every day means you have to get some in with breakfast.  Add berries to cereal, make a smoothie with whatever fruit you have in the house, eat an apple while commuting to work.  My favorite is scrambled eggs with asparagus  (my mom used to make this when I was a kid).  The other day I had cottage cheese with watermelon (I know it sounds weird, but it was good).  Just try and get one in at breakfast.
• Around 10:00 every morning I look for a snack.  To get veggies in, my habit is to always have a quick and easy veggie for that morning snack.  I pull fresh green beans out of the fridge (easy, right?) or stew rhubarb in the microwave (I add an Equal after) or chop celery and dip in almond butter.

What do you do to get your fruits and veggies in?

At www.nuval.com, vegetables and fruits are the highest scoring category of food.

The article highlighted the fact that in the new and improved Weight Watchers point system, fruit is now zero points, meaning it is a “free food.”  Apparently, there are some health professionals who believe this is not a good idea.  They’re suggesting that fruit doesn’t pack enough of a nutrition punch for the calories and sugar it contains.  They’re also saying that people trying to lose weight need fewer carbohydrates, not more.

But here’s my issue.  The article says that fruit doesn’t pack enough nutrition punch.  Compare to WHAT?!  Candy bars?  100 calorie pack cookies?  Trail mix?  Yogurts (most of which are sugar sweetened)?  In all seriousness, the only food category I can think of that is more nutrient dense and low in calories is vegetables.  And yes, as a dietitian, I would say that vegetables are a better choice than fruits.  But seriously, people aren’t often choosing between fruits and vegetables; they’re choosing between fruits and candy bars or 100 calorie packs or trail mix or yogurt, none of which are a better nutrition choice than fruit.

Now on to the carbohydrate issue.  I agree that in the U.S. we have become overconsumers of carbs.  But it isn’t in the form of fruit.  As the data indicates and as I’ve addressed previously in this blog, we’re getting it from regular pop, doughnuts, muffins, pasta and breads made with white, refined flour – all of which pack very little nutrition punch when put up against fruit.

So the bottom line?  Weight Watchers is right.  Eat whole fruits.  Count them as zero points.  Choose them instead of the plethora of other snacks and side dishes that have far less nutrition quality. 

Visit www.nuval.com to use a system that understands the value of fruits in overall eating habits, ranking them as one of the highest scoring food categories.

·     While the amount of fruits kids eat has increased by 11% and vegetables by 3% over the past five years, 88% of kids don’t get enough fruit and 92% don’t get enough vegetables.

·     From 2005-2010, teens have actually decreased the amount of fruits and vegetables they get from a daily average of 1.84 cups to 1.76 cups.

·     Across the entire population, only 6% of us get the recommended number of vegetable servings and 8% get the recommended fruit servings on any given day.

·     Less than 1% of the $2 billion spent on food marketing to kids promotes fruits and vegetables.

This is definitely a situation where the statistics speak louder than anything I could possibly say.

But what I can do is to provide some idea as to what action you can take today or tomorrow or the next day to improve these statistics for you and your family.  To accomplish this, I reached out to some of my favorite dietitians who work with customers every day in their roles in the supermarket industry.  Here’s their advice:

Alicia M. Brown MS, RD, CSSD, LD, Health and Wellness Marketing Manager, United Supermarkets L.L.C.

“I encourage trying new fruits and vegetables as a family. Put the kids on a hunt to find a fruit or vegetable they’ve never tried. Make it an adventure. If they are old enough, have them look online for a recipe with the new ingredient. I’m a big proponent of getting the kids involved as it increases their likelihood of trying and actually liking new foods. The family together can try the new fruit or vegetable and each family member is allowed to like or dislike it. When kids are allowed to say no this frees them up to say yes. Younger kids get a kick out of making up a new name for the fruit or vegetable. On store tours we’ve even had kids make up a TV commercial about this new fruit or vegetable.”

Amey Herald, M.S., RD/LD, Kroger Dietitian

“One of the tips I give customers is to take advantage of the many frozen vegetable options. Keeping bags of frozen vegetables and microwave cookware on hand can be the answer to a quick side dish for rounding out a meal in a flash. Frozen vegetables packaged plain are nutritious and can be seasoned after cooking with a spritz of olive oil and spices. Also, shoppers like the idea of tossing frozen vegetables in with boiling pasta as a time saver meal tip, and an easy way to work more vegetables into a  pasta meal. Spaghetti and pasta sauce including a medley of cauliflower, carrots and broccoli is a tasty way to combine high scoring vegetables and a traditional family favorite!”

Carrie Taylor, RD, LDN, Lead Registered Dietitian, Big Y Foods, Inc.

“Here’s one trick of the trade in the world of fruits and vegetables- don’t eat without color! It’s that simple. When you’re building your plate for breakfast, lunch, dinner or even a snack, make the last step before you begin eating the simple question “Where is my color?” If you don’t see any, hurry up and add some to your plate!”

Jessica Gourley, RD, Registered Dietitian, Food City

“My best advice is to make fruits & vegetables convenient.  If you already have them cut up and placed in strategic places, like the front of the refrigerator or on the countertop, then kids and adults alike are more likely to pick them up and eat them if there is not a lot of work involved such as cutting the fruit & vegetables up.  This way, you are more likely to consume them with meals and snacks instead of something less healthy.”

Visit www.nuval.com to see a system where fruits and vegetables are the highest scoring categories (as they should be).

When my blog launched earlier this week, Tina sent me a question via email. Here’s her question:

Have you heard of Greens to Go? It is a dietary supplement powder of organic vegetables and fruits that you add to plain water.  I think it has 7 daily servings of vegetables.  Looks gross (green), but tastes like green apple.  I just started using it (so I drink my salad!).  Just wondering from a nutrition standpoint if it will be any benefit - as usually I don’t get enough veggies and fruits.  Maybe you can blog about it??

Per Tina’s request, I am blogging about it as I imagine it’s a topic that many of you wonder about.  Supplements such as this are advertised all the time, and you have to wonder if it is really possible to get seven servings of fruits and vegetables all in one shot.  Sounds like a great, simple solution, right?

In thinking this through, I encourage you to go to your kitchen and line up seven fruits and vegetables.  Any seven will do – an apple, a banana, a zucchini, carrots, raspberries, green beans, a red pepper. Just look up and down the line at them – their shapes, their colors, their textures, the options of what you could do with them.

Is it really possible that a powered mix could be equivalent to this line-up?

It’s true that a powder can give you straight up nutrients like antioxidants and vitamin C, and even some fiber.  But what you’d miss are all the nutrients that exist in fruits and vegetables that haven’t yet been defined or that can’t be whittled down to a powder.  Also, what about the possibility that the combination of nutrients in fruits and vegetables is important?  Finally, and perhaps the biggest question yet, if these seven fruits and vegetables don’t show up in your eating habits, what replaces them?  Fruits and vegetables tend to provide a lot of nutrients for their calories, and tend to fill you up – all good things in overall eating habits, and traits that can’t be replaced with a powder.

But Tina raises a good point.  What if you’re a person who just doesn’t get all the fruits and vegetables you need?  Are supplements the answer?  The right answer is to figure out a way to get more fruits and vegetables in each day.  But for many of us, this isn’t all that simple.  So what’s the answer for real people living real lives?

Like every good sitcom does during ratings sweeps, I’m going to end here with a “to be continued. . . “

To consider the wide variety of fruits and vegetables that score a perfect 100, visit www.nuval.com.